Well-Versed in the Habits of Man {FINISHED}

Finally. He had arrived. The Were-Dragon let his silver eyes roam about the hall in a cursory manner before sauntering in with the weary but smooth gait of a person who'd traveled many roads yet was capable of traveling more if he needed to.

His youthful appearance belied his true age- no, it did more than that... it made a farce of his connection with the real world. Even if he told these people exactly how old he was, they would not be able to believe him. The person they would see was young, probably in his late teens. Mortals could be so blind sometimes.

And Nikolai was thankful for this. It had saved him several times in the ages, when he'd dropped his guard without meaning to.

Despite all these thoughts, Nikolai was a little worried. He should not have come so soon- he should have waited until after the Shift. Then he would not have to worry about his dragon taking over close to the school. He'd looked over the forest and the lake, the cave and the river, but the proximity to so many people... He would have to ask the headmistress to help him plan for the Shift. As much as he hated to have to trust somebody about this, there was still the matter of the safety of those at the school.

Nikolai was dressed somewhat strangely, with a mixture of what he could recover from his hoard to wear. Overalls with the top part folded down over a belt, a filthy white shirt, a grey sweatshirt (that hid the white shirt rather well, although it did make the overalls look kind of strange), moccasins, and a bowler hat were all that would survive the trip. So he'd left the hat (he hadn't really liked it anyways) and taken what he thought would survive the trip. So, as he knew, he probably looked like the spitting image of his in-between days, where he simply traveled to make sure people would not become suspicious of why he never aged (some mortals had associated him with hobos).

The half-dragon carried a rucksack filled with part of his hoard. He'd discovered a half-century ago that his treasures gained in value over time. So he'd made arrangements to just... wait it out. He could hunt still, despite the moving of the herds in response to the threat of humankind, and gathering food now was almost like it was when he'd been human. Sure, he had very few memories intact over the years, but he was sure that he remembered that. Well, at least he thought he remembered that.


He wandered farther into the entrance hall, his mocassins making no sound at all. But he did venture a cautious, "Hello?" His peculiar accent made the word sound almost foreign.

"Hello." came a robotic-sounding reply from a corner by the door. Gadjit sat on a bench by the entrance, nicely hidden from the view of any who entered the building. It was a fantastic spot. He could examine each new specimen that entered without disturbing their natural behavior. But this one seemed to be seeking some sort of companionship. Very well then. He would gladly comply. He grinned as the electronic voice echoed from the device on his neck once again, "Are you new to the freak kennel? I am too. My Creator is finishing up the paper work in that room over there." He pointed with his artificial arm to a glass door nearby, through which a woman dressed in what looked like a lab coat was signing a large stack of forms as a portly counselor advised her where and what to sign. He lowered his hand again and smiled at the newcomer, "You appear to be a 'student', as they say. However, I've miscalculated before. I believed creator to be much older than she actually was, which made her angry for some reason... what is your purpose here, if I may ask? I've found there are many reasons why 'people' like you and I come to this facility." He hopped off the bench and moved surprisingly quickly beside Nikolai. He hovered around him like a fly, examining his entire being. "You appear young, but you hold yourself like an old man. Some psychological trauma, perhaps? And you're dressed different from the others, oh yes. " He stopped abruptly in front of Nikolai upon spotting his eyes. He stared at them, grinning mischievously. "And your eyes are abnormal. Is that your ability? Something to do with your eyes?" He stared unblinkingly at Nikolai; it was kind of creepy. But it wasn't supposed to be. Gadjit rarely ever meant to be creepy or insulting; he just had a limited understanding of the world around him. All he really knew was science, and one of the scientists at his former home had told him he was a freak. He there fore deduced that "freak" was some sort of species rather than an insult. Gadjit also had a limited understanding of people.

Nikolai had only been mildly surprised by this... whatever this was. When the questions began, he was hardly able to answer one before another was uttered. What ended up coming fom his lips was an accented, "Ehm... I wasn't aware that this place was not a school..."

He wasn't particularly comfortable with the hoveringness of it all, or the inquisitiveness. Still, his inner dragon wanted to pop out the boy's eyes and stuff them into his rucksack.

"No- I'm... my clothes... Now who are you calling abnormal?"

The Were-dragon was slightly annoyed, but he wasn't annoyed enough to avoid asking, "What are you?" He sighed, shifting his weight from one foot to the other, and added, "I am here to be the groundskeeper."

Initially, Gadjit tilted his head and stood, staring silently for a moment. Finally, after processing so much data, he took a step back and repeated, "Groundskeeper. One who maintains the property. I see. So you're neither a student nor teacher, but a custodian." He smiled happily at making such a monumental (in his opinion) discovery. He pointed to the man and said enthusiastically, "You are a foundation at this institute! Without you, the property would quickly become rundown!" He grabbed the man's hand and shook it enthusiastically, "I'm not really qualified to welcome you here since I just arrived myself, but all the same, I'm glad you're here." Remembering Nikolai's previous questions, he promptly answered, "Well, yes, they call it a school, but I have a theory that it's also a research facility. And don't worry, abnormal IS normal here! So you're 'In the Clear' as it were." On the subject of what he was, Gadjit paused for a moment before holding out his arms and answering, "I'm a Freak. Like you. Sub-species Technological. My artificial body parts make me a... what's the word... ah yes! A "cyborg"." Examining his own hand, he added, "Sometimes I break, but that's just fine. I can fix myself, usually. And if I lose anything, I can absorb new technology to reconstruct it." He pointed to his chest and smiled as if he were talking about how lovely the weather was, "Even my heart! Though, when it shuts down, I have to be quick about fixing it, or death is imminent. " He looked up at the Groundskeeper admiringly and said, "In a way. you and I are much alike. We fix the property of this facility... pardon, school." He paused,staring again, then suddenly piped up, "Oh yes! I almost forgot. What is your name, Groundskeeper? Tell me yours, and I will gladly tell you mine."

Nikolai tried his best not to show his disconcertment at such a barrage of conversation. All this boy did was talk and his energy made Nikolai nervous. As did the mention of this place possibly being one that conducted research. Still, his expression remained passive and his manner unvexed and tranquil, save when his hand was being shaken. When that happened, he raised an eyebrow as he thought to himself, "Strange hands..."

"...thank you...? I assume no such honors, Cyborg. I only provide a service." As for calling Nikolai a freak... well, the Were-Dragon assumed that it was a colloquialism and shuffled it into his vocabulary to use later. After all, he had to adapt to sound like the young folk or else risk being exposed for what he was.

The cyborg bit managed to confuse him, but only for a couple of seconds. The look left his silver eyes as he recalled what he knew of technology. Still, it was peculiar... especially the bit about the boy's heart.

His eyes lingered on the external voice contraption, liking the way the light bounced off of it. An avariciousness threatened to take over, but Nikolai was old enough to be able to control that aspect of his personality just so he wouldn't reach out and grab another's belongings... at least, this kind of belonging.

Finally, he answered, "Nikolai Dawes."

"Ni...ko...lai...dawes." the speaker repeated slowly, sounding like a telemarketing machine that spat out words syllable by syllable. He even mouthed it out, the first time he'd moved his mouth in the entire conversation. After a moment, he looked back up at Nikolai's eyes again and grinned. "Registered. Nikolai Dawes; Groundskeeper. You are my elder; Nikolai seems too informal. I shall call you Groundskeeper Dawes, or Mr. Dawes? or perhaps I shall revert to what I called you before I knew your name, Groundskeeper? And you may call me Cyborg in turn, as it's the name you knew before you knew my name was Gadjit Mekta?"

His glowing, green eyes widened further as he remembered something. "Oh! Groundskeeper? Might I ask you a favor? I have a... medical problem, and seeing as you are staff, you should know." he turned and lifted up his, shirt, showing the large, gem-like button on his lower back. "If I were to have a malfunction and shut down, if you happened to be near by, would you kindly press this restart button? If no one presses it, I will most definitely die." He then turned back around and stared at Nikolai again, focused again on his eyes. The strange little cyborg grinned. this man had strange eyes. Just as he had strange eyes. He felt oddly warm inside at the thought of not being the only one in the building with strange eyes. He made a mental note to check his systems later for a heating malfunction.

Nikolai was unused to so much conversation in so little time. Was this how the world had gotten? There seemed to be no time to breathe between words anymore.

However, his chance to meditate on this new trend in the speech patterns of mortals soon came to a close. Something far more important took over his attention.

God, it was beautiful. His eyes momentarily turned a brilliant flaming amber. His hand raised involuntarily, his fingers contorted into claw shape... then the boy was facing him again.

Nikolai struggled to push his dragon half back into slumber. His eyes returned to their original silver and his hand dropped to his side. He, however, could not remember for the life of him what the boy's question had been. "Pardon my inattentiveness, Cyborg. I have traveled very far today. Please repeat your query."

This Gadjit Mekta person was very interesting to Nikolai, but he knew that he would have to keep his distance in the future. The temptation was just too great.

Gadjit, knit his brow, and an electronic sound of exasperation emanated from the speaker of the strange device, shortly followed by, "I was merely asking, if you ever happened to stumble upon my catatonic body, to please press the button on my back as soon as possible so I can continue living." Suddenly, the boy was smiling again, "You have an accent, Groundskeeper. Are you from far away?" Those unblinking, staring, glowing eyes were locked on to the were-dragon; though, Gadjit of course had no idea that Nikolai was a were-dragon... or what a were-dragon was, for that matter.

"You might say that," Nikolai answered wearily. Meanwhile he was thinking, "If I ever stumbled upon your catatonic body... I would be more inclined to steal it and hide it away- perhaps after ripping away the mortal flesh first..."

Immediately, his demeanor took on a cast of self-reproach. He was not supposed to be thinking such thoughts. Especially with his Shift coming so soon. If Nikolai wasn't careful, he would invite trouble and probably kill somebody.

That was only half of his worries. His memories were as dear to him as his hoard. He had to put off the Shift as long as he could.

"Where are you from, Cyborg?" Nikolai was trying his best to continue the conversation, despite the fact that he was fighting a losing battle with his own avariciousness. Plus the boy's lack of lip movement to go with his speech was beginning to bother Nikolai just a bit.

Of course, Nikolai was a little more irritable than usual- he had not eaten in about three days (and that meal had been awfully small....) and that put a strain on even his slow metabolism.

(My apologies for the lateness of this post. I had to go somewhere.)

Gadjit noted Nikolai's body language. The newcomer seemed suddenly reproachful; of what the boy had no idea.

Then there was the question. He'd heard it before, but still wasn't sure how to answer it. "I'm from..." he thought for a moment before continuing, "I am from a facility, much like this one. Only... different. This one has more furniture, and pictures on the walls." He pointed to a nearby painting of some field full of flowers. "And more windows." He turned to look out one of the large panes of glass. They never had many windows at the lab for security reasons. He turned back to Nikolai and added, "And it's far from here. It took half a day to travel to this place." His expression had reverted to it's usual blank stare, seemingly devoid of emotions. He added, "I was from some where else, before Creator, but it doesn't really matter any more."

Just then, the woman he had pointed out before walked out of the office she had been in. It seemed all of the paper work was finished, and when she saw Gadjit and the stranger, a look of annoyance dawned on her face. "Gadjit!" she called as she marched over to him, though the boy pretended not to notice her and kept staring at Nikolai, "What have I told you about bothering strangers?!" Gadjit turned his head to stare out the window again and said crossly, "I wasn't bothering any one. You told me to try and make friends, and so I am. This is Groundskeeper Nikolai Dawes." The woman sighed exasperatedly and turned to Nikolai. "It's nice to meet you Mr. Dawes. I'm Gadjit's M-" she almost said "mother", to which Gadjit said nothing but turned his head ever so slightly, a subtle signal of his buried anticipation. "His Caretaker." she corrected herself, to which Gadjit also said nothing, merely turning his gaze back to the window. She could tell he was disappointed, and it sent a pang of remorse through her heart. Even though he was practically her son, she'd never been able to call herself his mother. It wasn't because she didn't care about him, but more because she didn't feel like she deserved the title after all he'd been through at the lab. "I apologize if he's made you uncomfortable in any way. The Kid here hasn't had much experience when it comes to socializing."

Nikolai raised his eyebrows and thought. He was just getting around to saying something when an intruiging interruption took place. He took it all in, the near Freudian Slip the woman had, to Gadjit's reaction.

He was old, not blind. Over a millennia of expanded life had made Nikolai observant of some details... not all, just enough to make this not so hard to spot. Somewhere, deep under his reptilian heart, he felt a pang of sympathy for the two. Not that he could remember any relationship like that in his life- his mother had been dead for how many years now?- but he felt sorry for the boy. And for the woman.

He shook his head, his black hair falling into his face briefly before he brushed it impatiently out of his eyes. "Not at all. I went through something similar." Half-lie. He was going through a phase of re-orientation. At least, though, he would try to behave like everybody else and he had an idea of what they were like.

Apparently this Gadjit was the last person to emulate behavior from.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Ma'am. Gadjit too." It was force of habit. He looked too young to be calling anybody Miss.

Something similar? Gadjit pondered this silently as he continued to stare out the window.

The woman waved her hand dismissively and said, "No need for that whole "Ma'am" thing with me, every one just calls me Doc. I assure you, I'm not as old as I look. Glitch here just stresses me out so much that it ages me-"

"I do not like that nick name." Gadjit interjected, "It implies I have a malfunction."

The woman looked at him slyly, seizing her opportunity to push his figurative buttons, "You ARE a malfunction. And I call you that because you glitch when you get wet... or near magnets... or-"

Gadjit interrupted again, this time some what angrily, "That's quite enough, thank you." The woman was disappointed. She'd hoped he'd be able to sense she was only joking, but as usual he was taking everything too literally. With a sigh, she turned back to Nikolai and said, "Well, thank you for chatting with him while I was in the other room. I'm really hoping he'll be able to make a few friends while he's here." Gadjit seemed to have excluded himself from the conversation by this point, glaring out that same window, seemingly at something in the distance.

Nikolai raised an eyebrow (the one on the side that didn't have scars) and told himself that if he did have conversations with Gadjit in the future, to ask the boy what he knew about humor and sarcasm.

"It is no problem... Doc. I was only too happy to do so," Well, now that he felt guilty for thinking some not-so-forgiving thoughts towards the strange boy. He wondered what the kid was thinking about, with his interesting eyes locked on something Nikolai could not see from this vantage.

"I wonder... do you think that the office you just left is the same one I am to report to work in? I have a few questions for the headmistressss..." He accidentally hissed the s sound in that last word- a pang of hunger was his only warning before he abruptly closed his eyes.

He needed to eat soon. The amber-fire color his eyes turned when he felt this way was a little hard to explain, especially to a woman he was sure was no mere doctor or caretaker. The mere presence of her ward was proof that she had to be some kind of scientist. Heck, even Gadjit had made a hint to it in the semi-description of where he came from.

Doc stared for a moment before answering, "It might, but it seems more like a student registration office. Couldn't hurt to try, though. And even if it's not the right room, they may be able to tell you were the proper one is..." Had this man just hissed at her?

Even Gadjit's attention was recalled, despite the apparent interest he'd taken in a distant tree, and he redirected his eyes once again to Nikolai. "Are you feeling all right, Groundskeeper?" he asked, unable to keep the hint of concern out of his generated voice, "You've seemed a bit uneasy through out our conversation. I had assumed it was my appearance at first, but you don't look well."

Nikolai nodded stoically, his eyes still closed. "Thank you. I should be able to take care of this quickly, then." The faster the better. He needed to eat to make his inner dragon cease its grumpy growling. It would be... most unfortunate if it woke up now.

He forced the dragon back, and only opened his eyes when he knew they were a safe silver again. "I am quite alright, Cyborg Mekta. Simply weary from my journey and in need of food and sleep. Once I am done checking in with the Headmistress, I will be heading to this school's dining area. Thank you for your concern, but it is uneccessary."

He almost bowed to them, not thinking too clearly at the moment. However, he caught himself in the very beginning of it and straightened quickly. "If you two do not mind, I shall get this done quickly. It was a pleasure to meet you both."

Nikolai gave them both an emotionless nod and headed to the office the doctor had come out of.